9. Begin With the End In Mind

Introduction

General: Derek: “When I do cocaine, I feel alive. I want to live fully alive.”

Personal: What does it mean to live? To live a full life, and abundant life, to fully live?

Biblical: Continuation from last week: “How to live a wise and happy life.” This week, Solomon builds on that by talking about how to live a full life. See John 10:10… Life to the max.

Big Idea from Eccles 9:1-12: Death comes for all, so live while you can. You are going to die. So, live a wise, happy, and full life before it ends.

Body

Death comes for all, so live while you can.

Exposition (Eccles 9:1-6, 11-12)

Everyone is going to die (vv. 1-3).

Death is an evil curse, and it is the result of the evil we unleashed in the world.

Once you’re dead, you don’t get any more chances (vv. 4-6).

Life is unpredictable, and we don’t know when our time is up (vv. 11-12).

Sometimes we bring the idea of karma into our Christian faith.

Illustration: Kevin ate the best, cleanest, crunchiest, organic, all-natural, plastic-free, preservative-free, whole foods money could buy. And he died of stomach cancer at the age of 40.

Application: Live while you can. Live the good life. Obey the king, fear God, find joy, and live fully.

To live fully:

Exposition

Be glad (v. 7).

Glad = pleased, delighted, satisfied, thankful, tickled pink

Gladness doesn’t come from our circumstances but from God’s love, often expressed through community.

Be happy (v. 8).

We should actually be glad (not just fake it) and we should show our gladness. As Christians, we have no excuse to live in fear or anxiety, or to be Eeyore… We are loved by God! Our lives should be characterized by joy—not in our circumstances but in our Savior!

Psalm 23…

Be faithful (v. 9).

Be devoted (v. 10).

Devotion = Commitment + Heart

Don’t phone it in. Don’t just check the box. Don’t settle for anything less than everything.

Illustration: Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)… “Joy is not gush. Joy is not jolliness. Joy is the perfect quietness of a heart that rests in God because it knows all is well.” —Amy Carmichael

Application: In order to be glad, happy, faithful, and devoted, we have to get over ourselves…

“The Good News is too often packaged and marketed… as a religious product: offering peace of mind, how to get to heaven, health and prosperity, inner healing, the answer to all your problems, etc. What is promoted as ‘faith in God’ often turns out, on closer inspection, to be a means for obtaining emotional security or material blessing in this life and an insurance policy for the next…” // I’m following Jesus because I’ll avoid hardship vs. I’m following Jesus because he died my death so I could live his life… // “Biblical faith is the radical abandonment of self… to love the God who is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” —Vinoth Ramachandra, Gods That Fail: Modern Idolatry & Christian Mission

To live fully (and forever) be with God.

Living fully comes from delighting ourselves in the God who delights in us. Abundant life comes from loving the God who first loved us. Living joyfully comes from dying to sin with Jesus, and being raised to live a new life in him.

Solomon says that death comes for all. But in Christ, death is not the end.

Rev 20:11-15… Everyone is born once, and everyone will die once. But if you’re born again, you’ll never die again. Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once.

Jesus is the way to live fully now and forever.

Conclusion: Have you been born again?